Voice of America recently hired Ramin Asgard to direct its Persian Service. His selection is curious, given his track record. Asgard has worked in the State Department and, for a time, directed its “Iran Regional Presence Office” in Dubai. More recently, he served as a political advisor on Iran at CENTCOM.
The problem is that it appears that he used both positions to undermine American policy toward Iran.
• According to emails recently shared with me, while managing the “Iran Regional Presence Office,” Asgard suggested a scheme to support the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) with tax dollars. In emails to Trita Parsi, president of the George Soros-funded NIAC, Asgard floated a scheme that would have allowed the anti-sanctions lobbying organization to handpick Iranian-Americans to staff the State Department’s primary field office on Iran. It was around this time that NIAC began its efforts to eviscerate democracy promotion funds meant to support civil society and radio broadcasts into Iran.
• While serving as a political adviser to CENTCOM last spring, Asgard penned an article for a Tufts University journal in which he professed moral equivalency between Iran and the United States, blaming both equally for a lack of “dialogue” and “cultural diplomacy.” Asgard continues to minimize the real issues the United States has with Iran, such as the regime’s sponsorship of terrorism and its underwriting of attacks against U.S. troops and allies, by saying the friction between the United States and Iran is merely a “political difference.”
• Those who have met with Asgard question his Persian fluency. This begs the question: how can Asgard manage U.S. broadcasts to Iran if he can’t understand what is being discussed?
Over the last several years, U.S. international broadcasting has had serious management and content problems (for a small taste, see here, here, here, here, and here). Things will worsen if the Broadcasting Board of Governors fails to start hiring serious public diplomacy experts who can speak the language of their broadcasts and offer a “clear and effective presentation of the policies of the United States Government and responsible discussion and opinion on those policies” (22 USC Chapter 71 sec. 6202).
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